Olive Appetizers Recipes

Delicious food doesn't have to be heavy or rich in calories. Selecting ingredients wisely is the key to making these flavorful phyllo cup appetizers. Instead of using calorie-packed mascarpone cheese, I strained plain yogurt and combined the thick mixture with green and kalamata olives, roasted red bell peppers, garlic, lemon, curly parsley and extra-virgin olive oil. I also added tuna and an anchovy filet for extra brininess (you could omit them for a veggie version). The warm pan-seared Nabulsi cheese helped tie together the Mediterranean flavors of these fancy bites.

My philosophy is if you have to sacrifice flavor by using low-fat products, then don't eat it. I'd rather eat in small portions or not eat at all. Of course, eating the way we eat in our home means having to stay active all day. Juggling between my everyday tasks and my wonderful 21-month-old daughter gives me plenty of occasions to spend these calories.

According to Daddy (my father-in-law), any snack tastes better fried. For this particular recipe he came up with, I tend to agree. We recently served feta stuffed olives at a dinner party. At the end of the evening, there was still a bowl full of the black olives leftover. Daddy challenged me and said they would have been all gone had I deep-fried them. The following day, I coated the cheese stuffed olives in a fritter batter and gave them a bath in boiling oil.

An entire bowl of fried olives never really made it to the dining table; they were devoured as soon as they were ready. What makes fried olives so tasty is that ther're perfectly crisp on the outside, but still remain soft on the inside. The key to success with these fried appetizers is to make sure you allow the excess batter to drip back into the batter bowl, then place the olives one at a time in the hot oil. I’m big enough to admit it; Daddy was right!